Whether there is enough parking in the city of Brighton depends on the day, who you ask, and how far you're willing to walk.

"Parking is adequate during the day, but in the evening when nightlife occurs, it is not sufficient, particularly when all the new eateries open," Roxanne Garber, an employee of Great Harvest Bread Company, 416 Main St., said. "Jameson's (Irish Pub) is supposed to open on Grand River and where they hell are they going to put anyone?"

City Manager Nate Geinzer is recommending the City Council approve a proposal by Rich and Associates of Southfield to provide a study of a paid parking system downtown. The City Council is expected to discuss the recommendation Thursday.

"A lot is perception," Geinzer said of parking in the city. "If you go to Ann Arbor or Royal Oak or Lansing, you're used to walking to get to your destination. The expectation in Brighton is you want to park right next to where you are going. You can get anywhere in downtown from our parking lots in a five-minute walk, but that doesn't mean parking won't be an issue in the future, especially as the city continues to grow."

The $20,500 contract proposal by Rich & Associates would include development of a "draft program" of a paid parking system, including long and short-term parking both on and off street; time limits; pricing strategies; multi-space vs. single-space meters; pay stations and payment options; and operational and enforcement requirements of such a system.

Cars on Main Street park for free Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. Metered parking is one of the possibilities being considered in a study of parking in downtown Brighton.(Photo: Gillis Benedict/Livingston Daily)

Garber said while she doesn't like parking meters, "it's a fact of life" and people are less likely to patronize businesses if there is no access.

"I'd prefer a parking structure, but they do need something," she said.

Tara Stanislawski, an Ann Arbor resident visiting her mom, Judy, who lives in Brighton, agreed. She doesn't like the parking meters in her city and has received tickets for being late to pay them. Her preference would be a parking structure, but Stanislawski believes something needs to change.

"I hate parking in Brighton worse than Ann Arbor," she said. "There's never any parking on farmers market days. You can't get anywhere near downtown. On weekends it's bad and for any event like ladies' night."

Rich & Associates would conduct a study of parking space turnover and occupancy of on-street and off-street parking areas and project revenue and expenses from the proposed paid parking program.

The company's proposal also offers an analysis of projected parking needs in three time periods — in the next year, as well as two years and five years down the road. The analysis will also address whether the city needs to consider parking structures.

Geinzer said pressures on the city's parking infrastructure continues to grow, with significant reliance on temporary parking lots, or leased lot that do not provide long-term parking stability, according to his report to the City Council.

The city currently has a parking ordinance which does not require a developer or business owner to provide parking if less than 65 parking spaces are needed, which Geinzer said the city has outgrown.

"Within the past two years as the city has been discussing its fiscal realities, both city officials and residents have posed the question of whether parking users and businesses within the downtown should have a more direct responsibility in the costs to provide parking," Geinzer wrote. "What is very clear is that the 65 space parking waiver is not sustainable in its current form."

Parallel parking in downtown Brighton, shown Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, is part of an investigation on improving parking availability in the area.(Photo: Gillis Benedict/Livingston Daily)

Bea Flanigan, an employee of the flower shop Art in Bloom, located on Main Street, called parking meters "a pain," but said a parking structure where customers of restaurants or hair salons could park for a few hours without having to worry about whether there time is up would be a good solution.

"There needs to be something, it is getting to the point of ridiculous," she said. "I'm fine and healthy and can walk, but if the weather is bad and you can't find parking..."

Geinzer said Monday the city can't continue to give away free parking to businesses and developers, relying solely on parking spaces and lots paid through taxpayer dollars. The study would focus on a better way to create a financially viable parking system.

The company, he said, would provide data and assistance in identifying the best solution for Brighton, which would likely include a mix of what has worked for other cities.

"There is no one thing to address parking challenges," Geinzer said. "It may be a little bit of paid parking, a little bit of enforcement, it's finding the right mix to meet our goals. We need to continue the conversation."

Mara Ikens, a Brighton resident and owner of ArtVentures on Main Street hopes city officials will do just that to solve "scarce parking" and perhaps also provide painted crosswalks in neighborhoods where people park on festival days in particular.

"I'd be open to anything and everything to discuss a solution to the problem," she said.

Parking stagnant, development stunted

Parking in the city has been a recurring topic of discussion by the city council and Downtown Development Authority over the last decade.

In 2016, the Brighton Downtown Development Authority was considering a plan to build a four-story parking garage with 277 parking spaces on a vacant gravel parking lot near the intersection of North and West streets. The plan was later scuttled due to its $9 million price tag.

The decision to not build the parking garage also cancelled a planned $10 million condominium complex, the developer said at the time.

Frank Portelli had filed a preliminary site plan to build 40 condos with space for retail businesses in a mixed-use building on the 7,000 square foot section of property he purchased across the street from where the parking structure would have been. When the parking plan was erased, so were the condos.